AP U.S. History I Period 2
12-4-12
DBQ 2 Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English and Natives of the New World had a very unique, and always changing relationship. Going from one war to another in a matter of years, to keeping the peace between the two very different cultures is a huge change. Within this matter of only 100 years, they learned to patch most, if not all of their differences. But it did take a few hardships along the way. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the English and the Natives didn't get along very well. Countless wars and outbreaks caused a lot of tension between the two civilizations. On March 22nd, 1622, there was was a meeting of Natives and Englishmen to trade between them. In document B, a report of Edward Waterhouse, and Englishman, it states, “they came unarmed into our houses, without bows or arrows, or other weapons, with deer, turkeys, fish, furs and other provisions to sell and truck with us for glass, beads, and other trifles.” This, coming in the view of an Englishman, isn't one hundred percent true, but this and other accounts just like it are all that we have to offer on this matter. The document later goes to say that the Natives proceeded to take the English weapons out of their own houses, and kill everyone in sight, “not sparing either age or sex, man, woman, or child.” To get another look at this, only visual, document C is a picture of the account of yet another Englishman, and not guaranteed to be one hundred percent truthful. Within a few decades of this, things began to slowly lighten up between the two groups. In 1647, document D, a book of general laws was passed for the Inhabitants of the Massachusets. This, coming from the government and in sync with what the English settlers wanted, states new laws. One of the laws says that “Nor shall any man within this Jurisdiction...amend, repair, or cause to be amended or repaired any gun...belonging to any Indian...Nor shall sell or give to any Indian...any such gun.” This was to keep the Indians under control and not cause any more major wars, but to also secure their victory if such a war would occur, as they would have firepower and the Natives have none. Another view-point of the power of laws against the natives was in 1619, was document A and is the Proceedings of the Virginia House of Burgesses, which was dominated by the richest and most land owning families in Virginia (page 76). In this they state that every native colony must give a certain amount of their children, mainly the most promising boys, so that the English could “educate them in true religion and a civil course of life.” so they could go to colleges and become civil young men. Political tensions between the Natives and English slowly began to ease with another few decades time. In document F, John Easton, a deputy governor of Rhode Island, talks about King Philip, the leader of the Native Tribe there. According to Easton, Philip states that “when the English first came, their King's Father as as a great Man, and the English as a littell Child.” This can be taken as the Natives seeing the English as a small, destructive child who pays no attention to the rules of society. Just like when the English came in and took the Native land and “destroyed it” according to how the Natives used it, and could have led to King Philips War (page 54). But in the rest of the document, you can see that Easton seems more tolerant with the Natives. This is most likely due to two things, one being its now 1675, and the two groups are growing more and more tolerant, and two being that his